Avoid Peeling Paint on a Concrete Foundation

Learn how to avoid peeling paint on a concrete foundation. Find out why you should only use epoxy paint on a cement foundation and why good drainage is important to stopping peeling exterior paint.

LESLIE: In Tennessee you can find The Money Pit on WFHG like Herb does. What’s happening at your house?

HERB: Yes, ma’am. (clearing throat) Now I’ve got a house made in about 1958 and on the foundation – I guess it was block and it’s been painted probably eight (chuckling) – no telling how many times and …

LESLIE: (chuckling) A lot, I bet.

HERB: … it seems like even after we scrape it and repaint it[1], it gets moisture in behind it and bubbles up. But it’s not reactive, I don’t think, with the type of paint we’re using. So what would you suggest?

TOM: Is this paint coming off on the inside of the wall or the outside of the wall?

HERB: The outside of the lower foundation.

TOM: OK. Well, if you have a lot of coats of paint on there, then you’re not getting any adherence here and that’s why it’s coming out.

LESLIE: Because it’s only sticking to the old paint, not to the concrete.

TOM: Right. And so, what you’re going to need to do is you’re going to need to get that paint off of there and strip that paint off of there. And then I would recommend an epoxy paint, Herb. Not anything else but epoxy. Because epoxies are the only ones that are really going to stick to the concrete[2] block. And if you do that – if you get the old paint off and use an epoxy paint on the outside after that – now you have a half a chance of having a real durable surface that’s going to work for you for the long haul. And whatever you can do to improve your drainage[3] around that area is going to lessen the amount of water that’s being drawn into the concrete block as well. So …

HERB: That’s what I wondered; if it’s – do you think it’s as much as what’s being drawn into the block …

TOM: Oh, absolutely.

HERB: … as what’s hitting the surface?

TOM: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

LESLIE: Oh, yeah. More so even because it’s coming in from underneath …

TOM: Right.

LESLIE: … and deteriorating what is holding on the new paint, which is all the old paint. So if you can control the moisture – you know, check your gutters. Do you have gutters? Are they clean[4]?

HERB: Yeah, we’ve got gutters but I might put an extension top on maybe one of them that …

TOM: That’s a good idea, Herb. You know, concrete is very hydroscopic. If you had a concrete column that was six inches in diameter solid concrete and you had an unlimited source of water below, water would run up that concrete column to a height of 5,000 feet before the weight stopped it.

HERB: Wow.

TOM: So that’s how strong the force of capillarity is with concrete.

HERB: The key is going to be the epoxy paint.

TOM: That’s right.

HERB: And it won’t take long to know if I’ve got it applied right, will it?

TOM: (laughing) No.

LESLIE: (chuckling) No, you’re right.

TOM: No, it won’t.

HERB: (laughing) I’ve got an air compressor so I may wear out an air drill using a wire brush on the end of that. I know that’ll get down to it.